You either have it, or you don’t－a sense of direction. But why is it that some people could find their way across the Sahara without a map while others can lose themselves in the next street?
Scientists say we’re all born with a sense of direction, but it is not properly understood how it works. One theory is that people with a good sense of direction have simply worked harder at developing it. Research being carried out at Liverpool University supports this idea and suggests that if we don’t use it, we lose it.
“Children as young as seven have the ability to find their way around,” says Jim Martland, research director of the project. “However, if they are not allowed out alone or are taken everywhere by car, they never develop the skills.”
Jim Martland also emphasizes that young people should be taught certain skills to improve their sense of direction. He makes the following suggestions:
If you are using a map, turn it so that it relates to(与……有联系) the way you are facing.
If you leave your bike in a strange place, put it near something like a big stone or a tree－something easy to recognize. Note landmarks on the route as you go away from your bike. When you return, go back along the same route.
Simplify(简化) the way for finding your direction by using lines such as streets in a town, streams, or wells in the countryside to guide you. Count your steps so that you know how far you have gone and note any landmarks such as towerblocks or hills which can help to find out where you are.
Now you will never get lost again!
【小题1】Children have the ability to find the way around when they are ______ years old.

Answer the questions（根据短文内容回答下列问题)
Your Nose is Busy and Important
Your nose has many important jobs, and is always busy.
Smelling
Smelling helps you gather information about the world around you. A good scent (气体),like flowers, brings you pleasure. A bad scent, like smoke or sour milk, warns you of danger. Most things around you release scent particles (微粒) into the air. These invisible chemicals enter the nose when you breathe. Nerves in the nose send information to the brain to identify a smell. You are able to recognize thousands of smells.
Breathing
Most of the air you breathe enters through your nose. The nose uses hair and mucus (粘液) to clean dust and germs (细菌) out of the air. The air that enters your nose contains oxygen. Your body uses oxygen to unlock the energy in the food you eat.  Even when you sleep, your body needs energy to keep your heart beating and your brain working.
Tasting
Your nose helps you enjoy food. Flavor is a mixture of taste and smell. The smell of the food helps you identify what you are eating. The sense of smell contributes more to (贡献) food flavor than the sense of taste .When you are sick and have a stuffy nose, your food doesn’t taste as good because without smell, food loses most of its flavor.
Smell memory
Smells can bring back memories. Your brain uses a process to create a picture in your mind from the odors(气味)you smell. Smells can affect your feelings because the part of the brain that helps you identify smells is close to the area that affects your emotions, mood and memory. More smell memories are collected as you get older.
Your nose has many important jobs, and is more than just a smeller!
【小题1】How many important jobs does a nose do according to the passage? What are they?
【小题2】Smelling helps you recognize thousands of smells, doesn’t it?
【小题3】What does the nose use to clean dust and germs out of air?
【小题4】What happens to your food if you are sick and have a stuffy nose?
【小题5】How do smells bring back memories?
【小题6】What do you think of your nose? Why do you think so?

Everything that humans hear is in the form of waves (波).Just as the eye sees light wares in the form of colors, the ear and the eye Curs these different waves into signals that the brain (大脑) can make sense of.

The ears and brain have an Amazing amities to recognize（识别）particular sounds. For example, a mother often can tell when her baby is crying even if there are other crying babies in the same room. This is because the sound of her baby’s cry has special meaning to her and the brain has recorded is importance.

The ability to recognize sounds improves with experiences. As the brain receives information about sounds from day to day, it stores the information in its memory. When the brain hears new sounds, it gives meaning to them based on the information already in the memory. This is why certain words or songs can make a person happy. Often it is not the words or songs themselves that cause this feeling. The sounds are connected to happy memories for that person.

After hearing process controlled by the brain is to decide where a sound is coming from. One ear is usually closer to the source (来源) of a sound than the other ear is. Sound waves are stronger when they reach the ear that is closer. They also reach the closer ear first. The brain recognizes these differences and uses them to decide the location of the source of the sound.

1.Which of the following shows the normal hearing process of a mother hearing her baby crying?

a. The ears receive the sound waves.

b. The mother recognizes her baby’s cry.

c. The ears turn the sound waves into signals.

d. The baby’s cry ravels in the form of sound waves

e. The brain connects the signals to the information in me memory.

A．d-a-c-b-e          B．d-a-c-e-b          C．a-d-c-b-e          D．a-d-c-e-b

2. Certain words or songs can change tarpon’s moods mainly because of his         .

A．lifestyle           B．personality        C．experiences       D．hobbies

3.According to the last paragraph, It will be the most difficult for a person who has lost the hearing in one ear to tell         .

A．where the source of a sound is             B．how loud a sound is

C．when a sound starts to appear              D．what makes a sound

4.What is the best title for this passage?

A．Human Brain’s Amazing Facts

B．Human Hearing Characteristics

C．How to improve Hearing

D．How Do Humans Hear

It is easy for us to tell who our family members are, but do plants recognize(识别) their own family? Some do, scientists say, according to a report by Science News in early 2010.
Guillermo P. Murphy and Susan Dudley are two plant scientists from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. They did a few experiments with Jewelweeds, a kind of flower that grows in wet, shady spots. They found that the flowers seem to know their own flower family. In their experiments, Murphy and Dudley planted jewelweeds in pots with either siblings or strangers.
When jewelweeds were planted in pots with strangers, the plants started to grow more leaves than if they had been planted alone. This response(反应)suggests that plants are competing with strangers for sunlight, since a plant with more leaves can receive more light and make more food. Jewelweeds usually grow in the shade, where sunlight is not enough.
When jewelweed seedlings(幼苗)were planted with siblings, they grew a few more branches than they usually would if they were alone – but they did not start growing lots of extra leaves. This behavior suggests the plants are more likely to share resources, rather than compete.
According to the Science News report, Jewelweeds are not the first plants that plant scientists have studied for family recognition. In 2007, Dudley and her team studied the Great Lakes sea rocket, a plant that grows on the beach – where it may be hard to get fresh water. In that experiment, the scientists found that when sea rockets were planted with siblings, they tolerated each other. But when they were planted with strangers, the sea rockets reacted by working extra hard to grow lots of roots.
Dudley says this just because sea rockets, on the beach, get plenty of sun but struggle for water – so when they’re threatened, they compete for water. Jewelweeds have plenty of water but have to compete for sunshine, so they grow more leaves.
【小题1】 What does the underlined word siblings mean?